


Coming Up For Air

by ObsidianRomance



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Hurt Jensen Ackles, M/M, Merman Jensen, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-24
Updated: 2013-08-24
Packaged: 2017-12-24 11:50:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/939671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObsidianRomance/pseuds/ObsidianRomance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared is a marine biologist.  He finds pregnant, injured, merman Jensen on the beach and takes it upon himself to nurse the merman back to health and figure out what he really is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Up For Air

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings** : Merman!Jensen, graphic birth, hurt!Jensen, mpreg!Jensen, cursing, blood, inter-species attraction (but it doesn't go further than that), male lactation  
>  **Disclaimer** : I don't own anything. I am borrowing names and faces for fun.  
>  **Beta** : [YohKoBennington](http://archiveofourown.org/users/YohKoBennington/pseuds/YohKoBennington)  
>  **Prompt** The original prompt was by [2People2](http://2people2.livejournal.com/profile) and it can be seen [here](http://mpregwinchester.livejournal.com/405542.html?thread=1213990#t1213990). Thank you for the wonderful inspiration my darling. I hope I filled your expectations.  
>  **A/N** : I have never written anything like this. It is far outside my comfort zone and I usually stick to human or zombie characters. I actually had a ton of fun writing it and I hope you have a ton of fun reading it. It is probably the story I am the most nervous about posting. I have to give a big thank you to [YohKoBennington](http://archiveofourown.org/users/YohKoBennington/pseuds/YohKoBennington) because she is the one that gave me the confidence to try something different. Also, I know about marine life, I am using that information and totally warping it to create this version of a merperson. I hope it works for you.

Jared knows he probably shouldn’t be scouring the beach right now.

He has other things to do.

And he definitely shouldn’t be diving the dock wreck off the coast.  He really shouldn’t.  Every time he does, he loses track of time and spends far too any hours there.  Plus, he will probably get in when it is getting dark which is usually not recommended for divers but Jared has never listened to anyone’s rules.  He hears them but usually decides they don’t apply to him.  He’s stubborn.  He’s a rebel in that way but not many other areas.  So, coming back to shore after dark isn’t terrible.

That’s usually not a problem, but he has work early tomorrow and it’s an important day. 

There are pretty much a handful of what Jared considers “exciting” marine biology work options and Jared’s lucky to have one of them.  He plans on never messing with that bit of fortune.

He’s an idiot for staying out too late and not working on the data from his team’s last research expedition but sometimes the ocean calls him.  It’s a pull he’s always had.  His parents have gone above thinking it was a phase or a hobby; they now know their son is probably has salt water running in his veins rather than blood.  They know he’s happier in the water than on solid land.

When the ocean calls Jared, he can’t say no.  He’s eccentric because of it, but people swear they love that about him.

The tide is low by the time he returns but it is still crashing into the shore violently, enough that Jared is completely out of breath by the time he battles through it and trudges up onto the sand.  He wraps a towel around his waist even though he stopped caring about soaking his car with salt water years ago.

He’s tired and he’s most likely going to pull an all-nighter with an I.V. line of caffeine fitted to his veins. He’s done it before with relative functionality.  He literally has 300 feet to walk until he gets to his car and is pulled into the world of real work.  He scoffs at the thought.

As exhausted as swimming has left him, he’s buzzing with the natural high he gets by observing marine life in their natural habitat.  It never gets old and it probably never will. 

He needs to get out of there soon because it’s after hours and the security who patrol the area hit this spot like clockwork.  They are all familiar with Jared; they don’t give him a hard time…usually.  Jared’s not in the mood to schmooze and play “stupid marine geek”.

Rubbing a hand over his face, he closes his tired eyes and shuffles forward.  He knows the beach by heart.  It’s why he’s so surprised as he steps forward blindly and his foot comes in contact with something solid and warm.  Eyes flying open, he looks down to see a person lying in the sand.  His first instinct is that it is a dead body but the skin had felt too warm and alive for that to be the truth.  He has to blink a few times to see through the darkness and realize it’s a man, one arm raised up as his head lolled back in unconsciousness against his bicep.

The person isn’t dead.  He’s asleep or passed out.  It is unusual for most people to even use this little slip of land during daylight, let alone moonlight.

He reaches down to shake the person, cupping his shoulder and jostling him enough.  “Hey.  Hey, wake up.”

The person doesn’t move and Jared gives a frustrated sigh.  “Hey!”  He shakes the person again, causing him to roll over on his back and face a closed eyed expression up at the sky.  “Holy shit.”

Jared scrambles backwards when he finally notices that the person is not a person at all.  He swears his mind must be playing tricks on him because…what he’s seeing?  It doesn’t exist.

The man – the thing – is not human.  He feels stupid even thinking it but Jared realizes he is staring at a merperson.  He’d say merman but there is something off about the creature that makes him hesitate in saying so.

The unresponsive thing in the sand looks like a man, he can tell that even in the dim lighting.  It has short hair and even though his features look pretty, they are masculine.  Its chest is defined and flat, also masculine.  What throws Jared off is the fact that the thing’s middle is bloated and round, protruding in a way Jared’s only seen in a human pregnancy. What he is seeing doesn’t make sense for more than the fact that there is a giant fin attached to the lower portion of the thing’s body.

Jared pulls back again.  “Oh my god…”  It’s like he can’t believe what he is seeing all over again.  His heart speeds up and he swears he is going crazy.  Fisting his hair, he paces in a circle.  “This can’t be real.  This isn’t real.  Someone is playing a trick one me.”  He looks over his shoulder blindly, imagining his friends from work hiding in the shadows in wait.  “Very funny guys.  You got me.  It looks so real.”  Jared laughs at his own expense and shakes his head.  “I mean, the fin…it looks like,” Jared reaches down to pull at the top of the thing’s fin, expecting to reveal a pair of legs but he meets immediate resistance.  It’s firmly and organically knitted to the top half of the merperson.

“Holy shit, that’s real!”  Jared’s fingers know scales when he touches them and that is exactly what his fingers just slipped over.  They are a little dry but what he just touched are definitely scales.  He looks over his shoulder again and shouts out in search of his co-workers, “guys?”  He is only answered by the crashing of the waves.  “Fuck, this is actually happening.”  He runs his hands over the scales again and up the thing’s torso.  It’s real and alive; he can feel the lungs working shallowly.  “This _can’t_ be happening.”

Jared knows everything that lives in the ocean.  There are some freaky things there but merpeople are not one of them.  They don’t exist.

They exist in fairytales and Disney movies but mermen and mermaids are biologically impossible and improbable creatures.  They make no sense, hence why they are not real.

So what the hell is he looking at?

As he leans down, his mind is still reeling from the impossibility of the situation.  Still, his scientific brain takes over and he can’t stop himself from running curious hands over the giant fin.  The fin is enormous.  It’s got to be over four feet long, maybe longer.  There is a fanned out portion at the bottom and Jared can tell that if it wasn’t crumpled up in the sand that it would be quite impressive.  His hands run over the span of the tail and he can feel powerful muscles hiding underneath.  “Woah…”  In an instant, he is more inquisitive than freaked out.  His fingers trace the muscles but dip in unnaturally and come away with a tacky substance.  Flinching in surprise, he jerks his hand away and looks at it in the moonlight.  His fingers are coated with something dark and Jared only has to smell it once to figure out it’s blood.

Biting his lip, he turns the creature fully unto its other side and finds three jagged tears in the fin.  The flesh and muscle are damaged, ripped open and looking a little like ground up meat.  The scales are hanging lose and open in some parts and sand is packed into the wound.  Jared’s seen enough injured sea mammals to stomach such wounds, but this one tugs on the marine rescue part of his heart.  Instead of thinking about what was responsible for the bite, first instinct is to figure out how to repair the wound. 

He can do it.  He’s repaired worse.

“I’m crazy.”  He says to himself in hushed whispers.  “I’m crazy.  There is no way I can bring this thing back to the lab.  They’ll think I’m nuts…which I am.  Fuck.”  His mind searches through possible options.  He’s too far in now to contemplate leaving the thing on the beach and hoping it is all some illusion brought on by his exhaustion.

If he brings this creature to the lab, Doc will kill him or commit him to a psychiatric hospital because this thing really can’t be a merperson.

Then what the hell is it?  It’s human on top and fish on the bottom.  The only noun that fits the bill is a merperson.

Surrendering to that, Jared comes to terms with the fact that he is staring down at a merperson, an almost dead merperson but a merperson all the same.

Jared runs his hands over the human part of the creature.  It’s alive but he’s not sure how much longer it will last.  If he is going by human standards, the breathing seems to shallow and the skin is cold.  But this is a merperson, who the hell knows what a merperson’s normal temperature is?

His hands fall to the swell on the thing’s belly and he pulls away like he’s just been burned.

There was movement under his hands, a wiggling, squiggling type of movement.  He tentatively touches the merperson’s stomach again and feels the same thing again.  Getting bolder, he palpitates the area gently.  There is something under the skin there and it didn’t take kindly to being knocked around by Jared’s manipulations.  It does something, and then Jared feels a very human-like hand push out into his own palm.

His eyes go wide when he realizes what is going on.  “Seriously?  I’ve found a pregnant merman?  Merperson?  Whatever the fuck gender you are.”

Normal people would be thrown by that but Jared only wants to know more.  He’s feeling a little loopy from the adrenaline rush he is riding and he _needs_ to know what is going on.

“Oh, hell!”  He rolls his eyes and can’t believe he is going to do what he is about to.  Pulling the towel from his waist, he wraps it around the lower portion of the merperson’s body.  Once the fin seems sufficiently shielded, he leans down and gets one arm around the thing’s shoulders and one under the joint in the tail where a human’s knees would be.  He tries to lift but the thing is deceivingly heavy.  Jared is not a weak man and he almost falls backwards from the unexpected failure in getting the thing into his arms.  Putting all his strength into it, he hoists the creature up and heads towards his car.  The dead weight in his arms collides into his chest and he can feel very human-like breath ghosting over his skin.  It makes him shiver because the thing in his arms is very, very, _very_ real.

If he can’t bring the thing to the lab, then he’s bringing it to his house.

“Jared, this is a terrible idea.” But even as he is trying to talk himself out of it, he’s doing it anyway.  He’s going to need to swing by the lab to get some antibiotics, anesthetics, and enough materials to clean and stitch the wound.

“Jared?  Is that you?”

Jared turns around to receive a flashlight beam to the face.  “Uh, yeah, hi Sally.”

The security guard sighs and drops the flashlight.  “Jared, you know the beach closes at sunset.  What are you still doing here…”  Her words drop off when she notices the person in Jared’s arms.  Her flashlight bounces over the merperson’s torso but Jared has him curled into his arms so that the only thing Sally can see clearly is his dirty blonde hair and curved back as the thing’s head is nestled in the crook of Jared’s neck.  “Ohh…”

Jared turns on the charm and smiles sheepishly.  “Sorry about that.  I know.  It’s just…my friend here had a little too much to drink and we were waiting it out.  I meant to be home hours ago.  But now I have to take his sorry ass home with me.”

“Friend, huh?”  Sally gives Jared a pointed look.

“Yeah, friend.”  Jared shifts his weight.  The merperson is getting damn heavy and he really doesn’t want to drop it in front of Sally.

“Uhh huh…well, you and your ‘friend’ have a good time tonight.”  She gives a wink.  “It’s been took long since I’ve seen you with a ‘friend’.”

Jared wants to die.  He flushes red and if he wasn’t holding a mythological creature, he’d probably put his tail between his legs and run.  It’s bad enough that he hasn’t had a boyfriend in months.  It’s worse that Sally noticed that fact.  “Okay, yeah.  We will.  Sorry.”

Sally gives him a peculiar look again and turns around to continue her route, leaving Jared with enough time to scurry to his car.  It’s an odd combination of hoisting the merperson on the top of his trunk and fishing for the door handle blindly but Jared eventually gets the thing in the back of his car.

He’s going to get arrested tonight.  He’s already broken one law, why not go steal from the lab and break another?

********************

Jared has no idea where to begin with the merperson’s wound.  He gets the thing into his house and settles on working on it in the kitchen, putting the extra leaf in the table so that he can rest the merman – it is a merman, he’s going with that – on top of it.  Even then, the fin still dangles off.

In the light, he can now see that the tail is emerald green and the scales have a reflective quality to them.  He can also see that they are covered in red streaks of blood.

He doesn’t know what he is working with and he doesn’t know what dosages he can give the creature without killing it.  He mostly works with dolphins but dolphins don’t have such breathtaking facial features as this merman and they don’t have a combination of scales and skin.

He figures the creature is mammalian in species based on the fact that it is breathing air and is warm blooded but he realizes he is mostly going on what he knows from Disney’s _The Little Mermaid_.  A quick inspection makes it obvious that the merman is more than a mammal.  Behind the merman’s ears, there are small gills; they are flapping laboriously and are wet inside.

Jared leans down to take a closer look.  It’s downright fascinating.  The existence of both air breathing lungs and gills give this creature a one up on a lot of sea mammals he works with.  Scientific evaluation runs deep in Jared and he can’t help himself from taking pictures of everything.  It’s probably a bad idea creating evidence of this night but he can’t stop himself.

The creatature is still out cold, unresponsive after the not so graceful depositing of it on the kitchen table.  Jared takes a pen light and pries open the merman’s closed eyelids to check for responsiveness.  He’s shocked to find that the thing’s eyes are the same color as his tail.  It’s beautiful and very _un-human_.  Other than that, they look like normal human eyes which is something Jared knows little about.  Dolphins, whales, even sea turtles are things Jared could wax poetically about.  Human eyes are oddly alien to him.  All he knows is that the merman’s eyes react to the light and that’s good.

He figures he is going to work with the creature like any other marine mammal.

Even though it seems so deep into unconsciousness that it won’t notice, Jared injects an anesthetic around the wound so he can clean it without hurting the creature.  The wound is nastier than it looked on first inspection and it goes deep.  By the time Jared has is flushed out and cleaned, his hands and floor are stained red but at least the debris is out of the wound.

He stitches the tail back together as well as he can.  He’s always been good at fitting skin ravaged by a bite mark back together but there are some pieces to the tail missing and Jared has to improvise.  The stitches are perfect but the seam of the wound is a little crooked.  It’s the best he can do.  There are three rows of stitches and he’s afraid the tail will tear but he gets it done.

It takes hours and by the time everything is cleaned up and he injects some antibiotics into the merman’s system, Jared is shaking.

He doesn’t know what to do with the merman now that the medical part is done.  He can’t leave him on the kitchen table.  He hadn’t thought this part through before he brought the creature home with him.

He feels like he is part of an eighties comedy when he decides to lift the merman up again and settle him in the bathtub.  It sounds crazy but it seems logical that he would put a merman somewhere where he can give him access to water.  He sure as hell isn’t putting him back in the ocean; he isn’t even sure how his fin will work right now based on the muscle damage.  A bathtub full of warm water seems like the only other option.

He turns on the bath taps, splashing water over the wound to clean it off again.  When the water is as high as it can go without spilling over it reaches the merman’s belly – a detail that still doesn’t make sense in Jared’s world.  Even though the merman hasn’t woken up during the whole four hours Jared has been caring for him, he looks more at ease now.

The creature is really quite stunning. The enormity of his tail and the brilliance of its color knocks the breath out of Jared.  The thing in front of him is a marine biologists dream.  He’s beautiful and biologically intriguing.  The human part even has Jared fascinated.  His skin looks human enough but it’s too flawless and Jared swears it glimmers a little.

That’s the last thing Jared thinks before he folds his arms over the toilet bowl lid, rests his head in the crook he created and falls asleep thinking of singing crabs and evil sea witches.

********************

Jared startles into consciousness when he hears the most ear splitting high pitched shriek he’s ever heard.  He swears it is shrill enough to shatter glass.

He falls over, head rolling off the toilet lid where he’d fallen asleep.  Catching himself, he blinks his dreams out of his eyes and thinks he is still sleeping when he catches sight of a very animated, very frightened looking merman.

The thing in is tub is scrambling to grab something but he keeps slipping.  His tail is thrashing so much that water is _everywhere_ , and he’s shrieking.  It’s not a human sound at all but then again the merman isn’t human.

It takes another second for Jared to realize he isn’t dreaming anymore, that he actually did find a merman late last night.

“Oh, hey…” Jared falls on his ass and puts up his hands towards the merman in an attempt to calm him.  It doesn’t work and the creature shrieks louder, the noises coming out of its mouth starting sound much more like dolphin chips than anything else.

In Jared’s head, he thought merpeople would just speak English.  They always did in stories.  The merperson in front of him, however, is making so many alien sounds that realizes they are going to have a communication problem.

He stands up and tries to get closer but the merman only falls back against the bathtubs wall and looks way to frightened for Jared’s liking.  Cornered wildlife rarely do well and the outcome for the person trying to help is usually dismal. 

Jared backs away and sinks to the ground slowly.  He tries to make himself look as small and vulnerable as possible.

The merman doesn’t put his defenses down.  He tries to scramble out of the tub but his distended middle gets in the way and he falls back into the curve of the tub’s sides and slips down into the water.  There is more frantic splashing and his tail smacks the wall, leaving a wet bloody splotch there, proving that he’s torn stitches.

“Hey, shh…I’m not going to hurt you.”  Jared talks softly.  Now that the creature is awake it is so much more real.  He has no idea how he ever thought the tail was fake because it moves in tune with every other part of the merman’s body and it’s amazing.  “Shhh…”

With another frantic series of dolphin chirps and clicks, the merman falls against the wall, eyes wide and frightened and his chest working overtime as he takes rapid breaths. 

Jared tries to make a dolphin call.  He knows he is good at it and the dolphins he works with at the rehabilitation center always come when he does it.

The merman gives Jared a confused look.  He doesn’t respond but he does lose some of his fear.

Jared does it again.  If he had to translate the chirp he was mimicking, Jared doesn’t know what it means in English but the dolphin seem to respond similarly so he hopes he isn’t telling the merman he is going to eat him for dinner.  He chirps again and this time the merman responds.

“Holy shit.”  Jared stares at the creature.  Things move in slow motion.  He stays crouched on the ground for over twenty minutes, barely moving other than letting out a dolphin call every few minutes.  The merman relaxes and when Jared crawls closer the creature doesn’t panic.  He’s still guarded and watching Jared intensely but he doesn’t try backing into the corner.

When Jared gets to the edge of the tub, he sits on his heels and while he doesn’t make direct eye contact with the merman, he flits his eyes up every now and then.

The merman snorts or makes a similar noise but Jared is watching him at the moment and realizes it came from his gills and not his human nose. 

“Wow, you really are something, huh?” Jared wonders out loud.

The merman cocks his head to the side and studies Jared.

Placing a palm to his own chest, Jared speaks slowly.  “Jared.”

The merman furrows his brow in confusion.

“Jared.”  Jared leans forward and pats his own chest firmly.  “I’m Jared.”  He slowly moves a hand to point to the stitched wound on the creature’s tail.  It’s bleeding and Jared really wishes the creature hadn’t thrashed so much because now he has to redo the handful of stitches he popped.  That is going to be interesting when he can barely get within a foot of the merman.  “I help.  I help you.”  His words are aided by body language and pointing.  “I,” he pressed a palm to his chest, “Jared.”  Pointing to the wound, Jared mimicked stitching.  “I help you.  I fix.”

The merman studies Jared’s hand gestures before looking down at his tail.  He looks to Jared again and then back to his tail.

“Yes.  I help.  I won’t hurt you.  I good.”  Jared vaguely thinks he sounds like a caveman and he is speaking louder along with speaking slower.  The merman clearly isn’t deaf so he has no idea why his voice raises in volume every time he repeats himself.  Pointing to himself again, he keeps repeating his name.  “Jared.”

The expression on the merman’s face lets Jared know he is thinking.  He reaches out a shaky hand towards Jared and points at the exact spot Jared just pointed out.  “Jah-red.”

The excitement and shock that runs through Jared’s body over the fact that the merman just said his name is overwhelming.  He wants to jump up and down and shout but he restrains himself for fear of destroying the beginning of trust between the two of them.  “Yes.”  He points to himself again.  “Jared.”

“Jah-red.”

Jared smiles.  His name sounds exotic and foreign on the merman’s tongue.  The creature pronounces it like it is two words and he draws them out.  Still, it sounds close enough to his name and it seems fitting that even the way the merman speaks is otherworldly.

The creature points to his own chest and lets out a series of syllables that Jared can’t follow.  He repeats himself, trying to introduce himself in the same manner that Jared just did.

What the merman is saying are a bunch of vocalizations that Jared’s human tongue cannot attempt to imitate but he tries.  What comes out is, “Jensen?”

The merman shakes his head and speaks again.

Jared wishes he could do better, but he can’t.  “Sorry.  I am getting Jensen from that.”

The merman thinks for a second and then points to his chest, giving a questioning shrug.  “Jen-sen?”

“Yeah.  I guess you are Jensen.”  Jared smiles again.  He points to himself and says, “Jared” and then points to the merman and says, “Jensen.”  This time, the creature lets him get close enough so that Jared’s finger bumps into his chest.  The connection is startling now that Jensen is alive and responsive.  They both react to it by pulling back apologetically.

Jensen’s tail flicks out of the tub and they both catch sight of the blood.

Pointing to the wound, Jared sighs.  “I help.  I fix.”  He made the stitching motion again and Jensen seemed to understand.  “I fix now.  I fix more.  More stitch.” 

Jensen either didn’t follow or didn’t know how to respond.  He stayed still, leaving his tail out in the open.

Jared moved slowly, cupping a hand full of water and gently washing over the wound.  There were only five popped stitches.  He could fix that in minutes as long as the merman stays still.  “I fix.”

He scurries out of the bathroom and to the kitchen to get materials to stitch the wound.  It’s light out now and Jared curses.  He has to get to work but he can’t leave a dolphin sounding merman in his tub unattended.  Torn, he grabs the phone and calls the office.  No one is there.  He knows he will get the messaging service and he is happy for that because he can lie to a machine but he’s not so good at fooling humans.  Voice sounding as gravely as he can make it he coughs into the phone.  “Hey Doc, sorry for the short notice but I was up all night.”  It’s not a lie so it makes the rest easier.  “I can’t come in today.  I’ve been in the bathroom for hours.”  Also not a lie.  “Call me if you need to but my data is at my station.  You know my passwords.”  He hangs up the phone and rushes to Jensen.

“Hey, this is going to hurt but I’m helping.  Helping.”  He touches his chest.  “Good.”  Slowly, Jared gets the needles ready and uses it to mime stitching Jensen’s tail so the merman knows what he is going to do.  He works slow, piercing the tail’s flesh and pausing to keep his eyes on Jensen so he can monitor how well the merman is responding.

Jensen tenses and lets out a weird noise of pain but he doesn’t pull his tail away.

Jared keeps working, tying up the stitch and cutting the thread.  He holds Jensen’s tail in both hands, inspecting the wound.  The muscles underneath feel so much stronger now that Jensen is awake.  Jared wants to hold onto the tail, manipulate it, explore it.  He wants to figure out how it works and how many bones are in it.  His hands get too excited and he starts working over the stretch of scales, fingers searching and memorizing.  He’s pulled out of his awe with a strong slap to the face as Jensen swings his fin to smack Jared away.  Jared laughs and back away.  “Okay, I deserved that.  Sorry for getting to handsy.”

Jensen snorts and pulls his fin into the tub.  He looks miffed and Jared realizes that maybe he’d gotten a little too intimate with the other species.

“Sorry,” Jared says with an embarrassed smile.

Jensen doesn’t say anything but a loud growl comes from his middle and he makes a face of discomfort.

“Are you hungry?”  Jared looks at the merman and hears the noise of a stomach growling.  He’s familiar with that noise, he often experiences it himself because he forgets to eat when he is wrapped up in his work.  “You’re hungry.  What the hell do you eat?”

Jared isn’t sure he has anything to feed himself, let alone a merman.  His disappears to the kitchen again and searches through the cabinets.  He has peanut butter but he’s not sure how well that will go over with a gilled creature. All he can picture is the sticky substance gumming up Jensen’s gills.

He has Cherrio’s but he doesn’t think there are any wheat based products in the ocean.

A light bulb goes off in his brain and he remembers he has left over sushi from yesterday’s lunch in the refrigerator.  Grabbing the container, he hurries back to the bathroom.  “Here.  Food.”  Opening the to-go container, he places seven pieces of sushi on the bathtub’s edge in a perfect line.  Jensen stares at them in confusion so Jared picks on up and eats it himself.  “Food.  Eat.”

Jensen keeps staring at Jared like he is an alien.

“No sushi?  Huh?  What do you eat?  I have carrots.  You want a carrot?”  Jared keeps talking despite the fact that Jensen obviously has no idea what he is saying.  He runs out of the bathroom again and tears through his freezer.  He has frozen chicken strips…that could work.  Everyone likes chicken.

He throws one in the microwave, willing time to move faster.  Now that he’s broken through a bit of the language barrier with Jensen, he is eager to push forward and see what else Jensen can understand.

When he returns with a rubbery microwaved chicken strip, he finds Jensen sheepishly licking his lips.

For all of his size, Jensen looks extremely childlike as he smacks his lips together and licks away traces of the sushi.  He looks like he is guilty that he got caught in the act and Jared realizes the merman must have been hungry if he devoured the sushi in less than two minutes.

Only, Jensen didn’t really eat the sushi.  He seems to have scattered it about.  There are remains in the tub and on the floor.  Mostly, Jensen ate the seaweed rappers and raw fish but he left the rice.  The merman finds a stray strand of seaweed in the tub, plucks it out and gobbles it down quickly, giving Jared that sheepish look again.

“Hmm, you like fish.”  Jared makes a mental note of it.  “Do you like this?  You want chicken?”  He holds the chicken strip out but Jensen doesn’t take it.  He places it on the tub’s edge where Jensen inspects it and sniffs it.  “It’s chicken.”

Jensen wrinkles his nose up.  He snatches the chicken strip, takes a bite, chews, but then shoves it back out of his mouth with his tongue.

“Guess you don’t like chicken.  I can’t afford to keep buying you sushi if you are only going to eat parts of it.  How about whole fish?  Think you’ll eat that?”

Jensen blinks at him but his stomach grumbles again to alert Jared that the merman is starving.

That’s no surprise considering he’s been unconscious for hours and he’s…pregnant?  Jared decides to tackle that issue later.  Right now, he needs to get some food into the creature.  Ideally, he would love to raid the fish storage at the lab but he can’t exactly do that when he is “sick”.  The supermarket will have to do for now.

He’s afraid to leave Jensen alone but he can’t exactly call a friend over to ‘mer-sit’ him.  “Stay here.  I’ll be right back.”  Even as the words come out, Jared feels stupid.  Where else would the merman go?  He’s essentially trapped in a bathtub.

Jared grabs his keys and barely remembers to actually get dressed before heading out the door.

***************************

Watching Jensen eat is disgusting.  It is the one thing that detracts from the whole ethereal nature of his being.

At first he was shy, only eating when Jared left the room. 

Two days in and the merman is sucking down fish before Jared can barely put it on the bathtub’s edge.

He swallows them whole, heads and all.

It’s gross.

Jared’s seen almost every other marine mammal he’s worked with do the same thing but those creatures didn’t look as pretty and human as Jensen.

So Jared is spending a small fortune on raw fish, which Jensen swallows down with happy clicks and chittering.  Jared even went diving the night before and brought back some sea grass and sea weed.  Jensen wolfed it down, chittering for more and squealing when Jared gave it to him.

When he eats, it’s the one time Jensen looks like an innocent sea creature.  It kind of reminds Jared of the dolphins he’s worked with who do tricks for food.  Jensen practically performs for Jared in order to get a fish or handful of green sea gunk.  It’s cute and heartwarming and almost makes Jared forget that Jensen is a wild mythical creature that shouldn’t exist.

When he’s not eating, Jensen is serious and intelligent.  He studies Jared and tries to figure out his situation.  He’s more human than animal then.  He gets frantic often, trying to figure out how to get out of the tub and back to the ocean but Jared keeps speaking softly and pointing to the injury on his tail.  He hopes Jensen understands that Jared is trying to keep him safe, not abduct him forever.

It’s the second day Jared has taken off work and his coworkers think there is actually something wrong with him.  They believe there has to be something serious going on to keep Jared from working and Jared is willing to go along with that thought.  It makes it easier to take time off to deal with his “Jensen situation”.  Jared never misses work.  He loves his job.

As much as he loves it and misses work, he is starting to get addicted to figuring Jensen out.

They haven’t made much progress in saying words other than their names but Jared’s curiosity is killing him and he needs to break through to Jensen.

After giving Jensen more fish than Jared though could fit in his stomach, Jensen is happy and smiling.  Jared takes the opportunity to press a hand to Jensen’s distended middle.

Jensen flinches but there isn’t much room for him to back up since he’s already reclining against the bathtub’s wall.  He looks scared.

Jared hasn’t once seen Jensen touch his middle and he wonders if Jensen stupidly thinks that Jared doesn’t know about the baby.  It is impossible not to know that something is going on inside Jensen’s middle.  He can see the way it moves.  The merbaby inside isn’t exactly shy about making itself known.

Jensen makes a high pitched shriek and hits Jared away.  He wraps both arms around his middle and glares at Jared.  The merman’s eyes narrow, giving off a protective quality.  They are greener than Jared has ever seen them before.

“Woah, woah!”  Jared puts both hands up in surrender.  “I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”  He backs off and watches Jensen glower at him.

Jensen’s shaking a bit.  He looks defensive and Jared feels like an idiot for doing what he just did.  He’s had enough training to know what happens when you come between a parent and their young.  Jared makes a non threatening movement with his hands.  “Sorry.”

Jensen keeps staring but he loosens the arms wrapped around his belly.

They sit in a silence faceoff for several minutes before Jared tries again.  This time he points but doesn’t touch.  “Baby?”  He points again to Jensen’s curved out stomach.  It’s weird to see such a masculine upper torso sporting such a gravid middle.  He looks heavily pregnant, almost to term in human standards and Jared is a little apprehensive about what that means.  He had no idea what he is going to do with one merperson, let alone two.  “Baby?”  Rocking his arms, Jared mimics cradling a baby.  “Baby?”  He points again to Jensen’s stomach.

Jensen studies Jared for a minute before giving a hesitant nod.  He words his mouth around a silent word before getting out, “bay-bee.”  It sounds childlike but at least Jared knows they both understand.

“Baby, when?”  Jared makes a hand gesture like he’s taking something out of Jensen’s middle and then cradling it in his arms.

Jensen doesn’t get it, not entirely.  He looks deep in thought, like he is rolling a very important decision over in his head.  He gets upset and lets out a snort.

“Hey, shhh.”  Jared touches his own chest.  “I help.  I help baby.  I help Jensen.”

What happens next surprises Jared and he almost falls backwards.  He hadn’t expected Jensen to reach out a hand and press it to the center of his forehead, so when the merman touches him, for a split second he thinks Jensen is going to attack him.  It becomes clear that the touch is gentle and he steadies himself.  He almost falls down again when an explosion of light goes off in his brain and behind his eyelids.  It feels tingly and warm and Jared has never felt anything like it.

He wavers a bit, feeling dizzy as the after effects of whatever exploded in his mind.  When he opens his eyes, the room looks the same and Jensen is looking at him expectantly.

 Jared feels the same.  What definitely isn’t the same is that when he opens his mouth to talk, clicking and chittering comes out.  He’s surprised and pulls back, slamming two hands over his mouth.

“What the fuck?”  This time he’s speaking English, making him feel like he imagined his inability to do so seconds ago.

Jensen makes an inquisitive sounding chirp and leans forward over the edge of the bathtub.

Jared opens his mouth again and chittering comes out.  Jensen looks pleased and hums happily but Jared can’t figure out what is going on.

“Speak like me.”  Jensen points to himself.

Jared’s eyes go wide.  Did Jensen just speak to him?  The merman’s voice was a chitter but in Jared’s head he heard heavily accented English.  “What did you do?”

“Understand you.  I…”  He mimics touching Jared’s forehead and makes an explosion gesture by taking his fists and opening them wide.  “I make you see.”

Jared is speechless.  He had no idea how Jensen did what he said he did but he has a merman in his bathtub, why should he find it surprising that he can speak the same language now just because Jensen touched him?  His life keeps getting stranger but he doesn’t know what else to do but to go with it.

He tries to talk, tries to ask Jensen to explain but finds that the words aren’t in his brain.  He doesn’t know how to say them in chittering and they come out in English.  “What? Why? How?  Do you understand me now?”

Jensen shook his head.  “Slow.  Learn more.”  He paused to think of the right word.  “Time.”

“Seriously?”  Jared raised both eyebrows.  Time?  In time they would be able to communicate?  Why the hell hadn’t Jensen done this whole thing sooner?

Jensen studied Jared before making a splash with his tail to get the human’s attention.  “Trust, Jah-red.”

Things made sense and absolutely no sense at all.

Jared is stuck with a merman in his bathtub and the reality that Jensen did some magic freaky mer-thing to his brain to make them understand the same language.

He has no idea what is going on but he is going to need some more time off from work.

***************************

Taking the rest of the week off from work was easy.

What was hard was getting a giant inflatable pool into his living room without people seeing.

Jensen can’t live in the bathtub.  He can’t live in the inflatable pool either but it’s a step up.  Jared will figure out what to do after he gets to see Jensen swim and assess how well his tail is healing.

He finds the pool at a sports shop, of all places, and it’s discounted because the season is mostly over.  That’s good since Jared needs to buy Jensen’s weight in fish.

Once it is in the house, setting it up is easy.  Filling it is too.  Getting Jensen into it isn’t.  The merman screeches and claws at Jared no matter how much Jared tries to explain what is going on.  Despite whatever Jensen did to their brains, they are still missing too many vocabulary words to understand what is taking place.

When Jensen sees the pool, he calms down and gives Jared an apologetic look.  He goes willingly into the water, taking Jared’s breath away with how effortlessly he glides around the pool’s perimeter.  He looks much more marine than terrestrial.

The pool isn’t huge but it is large enough to take up Jared’s whole living room.  It’s meant for outdoor use and Jared prays it doesn’t leak and destroy his house.

He watches Jensen glide through the water, seemingly happy to finally submerge his whole form again.  He can tell the merman is struggling with his tail a bit.  He kicks the fin out to propel his body but there are jerky movements to it, not at all like the fluidly Jared’s seen in whales and dolphins.

The merman breaks the pool’s surface and smiles at Jared.  “Thank you Jah-red.”

It’s the closest thing Jensen has said to a grammatically correct sentence, not that Jared has been any better.

“You’re welcome.” Jared covers his mouth with both hands when dolphin sounding vocalizations come out.  He really has to stop doing that but the change in being able to switch between English and whatever language Jensen speaks without actually thinking about is brand new.  It’s a little scary.

Jensen makes a noise that Jared realizes is a laugh.

“You think it’s funny?”  Jared smiles.

“Jah-red sound funny talk like me.”  Jensen laughs again.

“Yeah, well, you sound funny talk like me.”  Jared isn’t sure what language that came out as, maybe a bit of both, but Jensen is laughing again so he figures he probably ‘sound funny’ again.

Jared sits down in a chair beside the pool and watches Jensen stretch out.  He still has no idea what to do with a very pregnant merman or what type of conversation they can have.

Something distracts Jensen from his stretching and he makes an odd noise while he balances on his tail and holds his middle.

Jared points to Jensen’s stomach.  “Baby?”

Rubbing a hand over his middle, Jensen nods.  “Bay-bee, soon.”

“How soon?”

“Soon, days.”  Jensen settles against the pool’s wall, closer to Jared.  He keeps rubbing his distended middle and making cooing noises that Jared couldn’t imitate if he tried.

Jared struggles to find a way to learn more.  “Jensen…man? Male?”

Jensen nods.

“Why baby?”  Jared points to Jensen’s stomach again.

Jensen shrugs and looks at Jared like he’s crazy.  “Jen-sen want baby.”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”  Jared knows what came out of his mouth was all English.  The rest, however, spills out in a series of unforced clicking noises.  “If you’re a man, how come you have a baby? How come you’re pregnant?”

Jensen looks pleased at the noises coming out of Jared’s mouth.  When he responds to Jared, Jared can understand him perfectly.  “I’m a sea person.  You’re a land person.  We…we are similar but we aren’t the same.  Male sea people can have babies when there aren’t enough female sea people around.  We can change.  We’re still male but we change, in here,” he points to his middle.

To anyone else, that would sound crazy.  To Jared, he knows what Jensen said is true for a lot of sea creatures.  It’s a fantastical concept but Jared understands it.  He probably accepts it too easily than a normal human should but Jared feels like maybe he was born for this moment.  This, _Jensen_ , makes so much more sense to him than humans.  It’s why he loves his jobs and the people affiliated with it.  They understand that.  They understand him.  Maybe Jensen does too.

“Do you know our language, Jensen?”

“Some.  A little.  We stay away from land people.  They’re bad but you’re…you’re good.”  Jensen sinks into the water so that only his head bobs against the surface.

“Yeah, I’m good.”  Jared’s heart breaks a little at the way Jensen’s voice sounded when he said land people are bad.  He agrees with the merman.  Jared’s seen exactly what the human race is doing to the earth, to the sea, to the animals in it.  He has a lot of animals at the rescue center who were damaged by a boat or fishing.  He can’t imagine what would happen if most human’s got their hands on Jensen.

“Jah-red saved me.”  Jensen smiles and his eyes give away how thankful he is for that.  The fear he held in them four days ago is gone.  He’s still cautious but he’s more trusting than Jared originally thought he would be.  Jared hopes that it’s because Jensen has never encountered anything more than stories in his life to make him distrustful of humans.

“Of course I saved you.  You’re amazing Jensen.  You’re…You’re everything I ever dreamed of as a boy and you probably don’t even know it.  To you, your type of people are normal.  To me?  You’re the best damn thing that I ever stumbled over.”

Jensen shakes his head.  “No.  Land people…land people have…”  he pauses to think.  “Land people have…”  He takes his middle and forefinger and walks them across the edge of the pool.

“Legs?”  Jared guesses correctly.  “Yeah, we have legs but that’s – ”

“That’s amazing!  That’s….”  Jensen’s eyes light up.  “Legs take you a lot of places.  You can climb and see, and explore things and…trees!  You have trees.”  Jensen smiles and bites his lip.  He looks childlike again and Jared lets out a laugh.

“Trees?  You like trees?”  Jared can’t believe he found himself a merman who is enamored with humans.  He can’t understand why.  Humans are boring.  Things in the sea are what always gets Jared’s heart racing.

Nodding vigorously, Jensen points out the window towards a small tree.  “Bigger than that.  You have big trees and no sharks and boats don’t hurt you on land.”

Jared has to laugh again.  He supposes that he and Jensen are opposite sides of the same coin.  In a way, he understands Jensen completely.  “We have other animals that can hurt you and there are things more dangerous than boats on land.”

Jensen makes a noise to signal that he understands.  He shakes his head in agreement with Jared and a little sympathy.  “You have chicken.  Chicken is,” Jensen sticks out his tongue to show his distaste.  “Fish are better.”

“Yeah,” Jared chuckles, “fish are better.”

And Jared thinks he just found the most interesting ‘fish’ there is.

**********************

“How is your tail?”  Jared is in the pool with Jensen, feeling foolish with how quick the pregnant merman can move while he can barely keep his balance.

“Better.  We…we heal quicker than land people.”  Jensen flicks his tail at Jared and sends a splash of water into the man’s face.

The droplets fall from Jared’s newly damp hair and his spits whatever landed in his mouth at Jensen.  Normally he’d be pissed off but the playful gesture is new for Jensen.  It’s also the only cliché merman thing that Jensen has done.  Jared thought merpeople would be as mischievous as they are in stories but Jensen seems too mature for that.

Jared gets a hold of the fin and brings it to the surface so he can see more clearly.  The wound looks good, great even.  It looks better than it medically should but Jared learned five days ago to put his schooling on the back burner because he is in new territory with Jensen.

His hands start roaming over the tail the way they did when he had to re-stitch Jensen’s wound.  Last time he got a slap to the face, this time Jensen blushes and avoids eye contact.  It’s odd behavior and Jared has no idea what it means but he’s so curious to see how Jensen’s tail works.  He keeps moving, shifting closer to the merman until they are practically side by side and he can wrap his arms around Jensen’s tail.

The muscles move under the scales and Jared is completely awestruck.  Jensen’s tail is even more impressive now than when Jared first laid eyes on it.

The enormity of things that thrive in the ocean always fill Jared with wonder and Jensen’s tail is no exception.  It’s long, sleek, powerful and beautiful.  He keeps touching it; he doesn’t think he will ever get enough for him to believe it’s real.  He runs his hand up the entire lengths of the fin and then back down.

Jensen makes a noise that sounds like purring.  It sounds vaguely like a noise Jared heard an orca make and he looks towards the merman to see that he is blushing feverously and biting his lip.

“Jensen?”

Taking Jared’s distraction as an opportunity, Jensen pulls away from Jared’s hold and moves shyly to the other side of the pool.  He turns away from Jared, pulling his tail in as close to his body as his belly will allow.  “When can I go home?”

Jared’s head is spinning.  He thought things were going so well with Jensen.  He’s confused as to what went wrong.  “Jensen, what?  What did I do?  I’m sorry…I…”

Jensen ducks under the water and doesn’t come back up for a long time.  Jared almost gets out of the pool but a splash alerts him to Jensen’s resurfacing.  “You shouldn’t touch my tail like that,” Jensen says shyly.

“Huh?”

“Don’t…”  He bites his lip.  “My people, we don’t touch each other’s tails.”

“Ever?” Jared questions with wide eyes.

“No.  We…our mates touch them like that.  Touch more if they want to…mate.”  The last word comes out as a whisper and Jensen turns away again.

It’s Jared’s turn to flush.  He can feel the heat burning his cheeks.  He hadn’t realized what the noises Jensen was making while he was touching his tail but now they make sense.  He’s heard orcas make those types of mating calls.  He feels bad for putting Jensen in such a weird predicament.  He feels dirty for realizing what he just did to someone who is half fish.  “Oh, Jensen!  I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to.  It’s just…your tail…it’s so beautiful and I liked touching it.  It’s…it’s perfect.  I swear, you can go home when you’re healed.  I am not trying to keep you here.  I promise!”

Jensen thinks for a moment.  “Can I touch your legs?”

“What?”  The confusion is evident in Jared’s voice.  The request makes sense given the circumstance but he really doesn’t understand Jensen’s fascination with legs.  They are nothing spectacular.

“Your legs.  Can I touch them?”  Jensen grows bolder and moves away from the side of the pool.

“Um, yeah, I guess.”

Jensen moves so quickly that Jared can barely keep track of him.  He feels the merman grab one of his legs and pull too enthusiastically, sending Jared to the bottom of the pool.  Jensen lets go and pushes Jared to the surface.

Bobbing in front of a once again standing Jared, Jensen pouts.  “Sorry.”

After coughing out a lungful of water, Jared laughs.  “Easy there, tiger.”

“Tiger?” Jensen asks with peaked eyebrows.

“It’s an expression.  Don’t worry about it.  Just, be careful.  I can’t breathe underwater like you can.”

“Mmm hmm.”  Jensen goes slower this time, sinking under the water and studying Jared beneath it’s surface.  Jared feels completely vulnerable.  Not only can’t he breathe underwater but he can’t see either.  Jensen clearly can because the merman is working his hands over Jared’s bare legs in calculated search movements.  Looking down, the surface of the pool ripples enough to make it difficult for Jared to see exactly what Jensen is doing.

Jensen’s hands work up his ankles and calves until he find Jared’s knees particularly fascinating.  He forces Jared to bend his legs several times.  When he figured out how the knee joint worked, he moved higher, fingers trailing under the hem of Jared’s swim trunks and figuring out the definition of Jared’s thigh muscles.

Jared shivers as chills run down his spine.  Jensen’s hands are stronger than they look and it is odd knowing Jensen is going to touch him but not understanding where or when.

Just when Jared thinks Jensen has legs all figured out, the merman starts from the ankle again and traces patterns over the length of Jared’s legs.  It feels good, relaxing, and it makes his mind buzz happily.  It feels like someone is scratching at a happy place in his brain and he can drift off into his own pleasant world if Jensen keeps that up.

Letting out a sigh, Jared relaxes under Jensen’s inquisitive massaging of his legs.  The merman moves higher, this time _way_ above the hem of Jared’s swim trunks, and brushes against the juncture where Jared’s leg meets torso.  Butterflies rush through Jared’s middle and he shivers.

“Ohh, okay…that’s enough.”  Jared hops backwards and out of Jensen’s hold.

Jensen comes gracefully to the surface, cocking his head at Jared in confusion.

“You know what you said about your tail?”  Jared waits for Jensen to nod.  “Well, it is kind of like that for humans and their legs.”

“Land people touch their legs when they are going to mate?”

“Um…something like that.  They touch that upper leg part.”  Jared laughs at himself.  When dealing with Jensen he is going to refer to his groin as an upper leg and it is never to be touched.  He sure as hell isn’t explaining the human penis to Jensen.  “So…no touching.”  He blushes, feeling _wrong_ and like he is damning himself for even thinking about the merman arousing him.  He has a hard enough time being gay, he doesn’t need to dabble in bi-species relationships, regardless of how effortlessly the other species takes his breath away.

Jensen nods but the light goes out of his green eyes and he makes a distressed pout.  His hands fall to his middle and he looks down in some type of understanding that Jared is lacking at the moment.  “Baby.  Soon.”

Jared has monitored a few marine mammal births at the rescue center and he should have been able to pick up on the fact that Jensen was getting ready to give birth.  He was hoping Jensen would have been rehabilitated enough to bring back to the ocean so he could give birth in his natural surroundings without any added stresses.  Selfishly, his curious brain wants to watch the one and a lifetime birth he has a chance to be a part of and it looks like he is going to get his wish. “Yeah, baby soon”

***********************

Jared wakes up in the middle of the night to splashing and noises of distress coming from the living room.  He’s out of bed in an instant, tripping over himself as he curses.  He wishes that he slept on the living floor like he wanted to but after the awkward touching session he had with Jensen, he needed to clear his head instead of stare at the merman.

Getting into the living room, he sees Jensen frantically swimming left to right.  He pops out of the water, takes a second to catch Jared’s eye and then whines.

“Jensen?  Baby?”

Jensen nods before dipping under the water, swimming the circumference of the pool, giving a struggling wiggle to his movements.

Jared can see from his watchful stance that there is a reddish tinge to the water in Jensen’s wake but he can’t focus on it for too long because Jensen breaks the water’s surface and comes to rest his back against the pool’s edge.  He hooks his arms over the rim for support and leans back.  His breathing is labored, uneven and loud, making it clear to Jared that Jensen’s having difficulty in this.

Based on what he’s seeing and the amount of blood in the water, Jensen’s been at this for a while.  Jared has no idea what to do.  None of the births he’d witnessed ever looked as strenuous as this.

Jensen makes a pained snort and tenses as he pulls himself up from the water, muscles rigid and shaking before he sinks back in.  He gives Jared a frantic look before ducking under the water again and repeating the odd lap around the pool he’d done minutes ago.  This time, when he comes up, he makes a loud keening noise and leans back into the pool’s wall with more of his weight.

“Jensen, I don’t know what you need.”  Jared takes a step forward the second he hears the merman make another high pitched noise.  It hurts his ears and he hasn’t heard Jensen shriek so wildly since the merman first regained consciousness in his bathtub.

Closing his eyes, Jensen shakes his head back and forth, lungs and gills working at the same time, which Jared thinks is probably a bad thing because the panting noises Jensen is making sound worrisome.

The merman is under the water again, swimming but making exaggerated flicks of his tail so it almost looks like he’s bucking under the water. 

Jared watches curiously.  There’s more blood and something about Jensen’s movement’s reminds Jared of the time he watched a dolphin give birth in one of his classes.  Actually, it’s very similar.  So much so that when Jensen comes up for air again, bracing himself against the wall, Jared isn’t surprised to see a wide slit a hand’s length below where Jensen’s fish scales start.

Jensen makes another high pitched whine, grunts, and then starts panting again. The slit widens to the point where Jared realizes what he’s actually seeing is the baby’s head being born.

“Oh…wow.”  He takes a step forward but isn’t sure what his place in this process is.  He’s pretty sure there are no mer-midwives although the thought makes him laugh out loud.  Jensen doesn’t appreciate that and throws him a frustrated look before groaning.

With his arms hooked under the rim of the pool, Jensen gets a good grip and bears down. He’s breathing funny again, craning his neck to get a look at the widening slit beneath his belly.  He fixates on it before dolphin-clicking through another push.  His body is tense and bearing down for longer than Jared can hold his breath but when Jensen finally relaxes, the head hasn’t budged much and Jensen slips under the water again to do three more frantic laps.  He pops out of the water, body straining and tail flicking so wildly that water is splashing everywhere.

Jared doesn’t care.  He can clean it up.  He’s not sure what to do about the merman though because he’s clearly in distress and Jensen is stuck with Jared as his only source of help.

Jensen whines, tries pushing again, this time arching his back and jutting his slit out in a way that lets Jared see it more clearly.  “Jah-red…stuck.”  Jensen looks at the human and lets out a noise that Jared can only interpret as a scream.

“Stuck?”  Jared can see the baby’s head curving out behind the widening slit.  It’s really close and looks painful.  He’s not sure why it isn’t popping out already.  It’s obvious Jensen’s not a dolphin but Jared has nothing else to compare him to and he’s never seen a dolphin have this much difficultly giving birth.

With a deep breath, Jensen arches his back again, shoving his mer-parts out towards Jared and goes tense as he bears down.  He’s shaking badly by the time it’s over but the head just sinks back inside.

Pulling off his pants, Jared gets into the water without a second thought.  He doesn’t want to think about the reason why the water is murky now; he’s too focused on Jensen.  “I’m going to try to help.  Okay?  Help you.”  He goes to lower his hands towards Jensen’s opening and the merman’s instincts run deep enough to override thought at the current moment.  Jensen pulls away with a pained whimper.  “Shhh, I’m just going to help.  You said the head is stuck?  Can I see?”

Jensen’s cautious eyes turn towards Jared and he comes back to himself.  He gives a trusting nod and this time doesn’t move when Jared puts his hands on him.  “Jah-red…help…”

“Going to try.”  Jared wades closer to the merman, movements through the water not half as graceful as Jensen’s.  He puts his hands on Jensen’s middle and can feel the tension there.  Moving downwards, Jensen hisses when Jared brushes up against the slit in the pelvic region of Jensen’s tail.  He’d only done this once, with a seal who almost killed him.  He’s hoping Jensen won’t follow suit.  Now that he has his fingers on the situation, Jared can tell what the hold up is.  “I’m going to help move the skin…scales…” he had no idea what to call it, “the membrane so that it can slip over the baby’s head.  It might hurt.”   He doesn’t wait to see if Jensen understands before his fingers are pushing the tight stretch of the slit wider and helping side it around the curve of the baby’s head.

Jensen lets out a high pitched chitter.  His fingers dig into the pool’s edge and he throws his head back.

“Almost there, Jensen.”  Jared leans down closer to get a better look at what he’s doing and keeps slowly stretching the slit until it looks more like an oval.  “Okay, try pushing.”

Jensen does with a grunt and the baby’s head stays there.

“Again. Come on, Jensen.  You can do this.”  Jared cups the area and prays the baby comes out.  He’s out of options other than cutting Jensen open.

Jensen makes a low guttural noise and pushes through a long groan.  He inhales and does it again, tail trashing and smacking into Jared’s legs.

Jared thinks he sees the head progress further.  “Keep pushing.”

Squeezing his eyes closed, Jensen scrunches up his face.  Jared can’t help but realize how much pain the usually serene looking merman is in.  It’s painting every one of his features.  On a gasp, Jensen bears down, hands coming forward to grab Jared on both shoulders as he leans into him for support.

“Good!”  Jared watches the head slide forward.  It’s still mostly in than out but it’s coming.

Jensen seems to get it from there on out.  He keeps up a series of several deep breaths before pushing with determination.  When the head slides out into Jared’s cupped hands, the merman shrieks.

Jared runs his fingers around the baby’s neck.  They still have the shoulders to go but Jensen’s already grunting and writhing, pushing down and screaming as Jared watches his body open wider and work to birth the rest of the baby.

The rest happens fast, as it always seems to do.  Jensen squeezes Jared’s shoulders, pushes loudly, and the baby comes slipping out.  The fin makes it easy for the baby to thrash about in Jared’s hands and sink under the water.

Jared can’t believe what he just caught – and subsequently dropped – while standing in a pool in his living room.  It was amazing.  He just watched a mer-baby come into the world and it was fascinatingly beautiful.

The baby swims awkwardly to the bottom of the pool and Jensen ducks under the water so quickly Jared can hardly believe it.  For something that just had as much trouble giving birth as Jensen did, Jared wouldn’t expect him to be able to move so fast without a recovery period.

Watching under the water, he sees Jensen gently prod at the mer-baby with soft nudges of his head.  They slowly swim around the pool at least two times, Jensen herding and guiding his baby the whole time.  In the end, Jensen uses his head to urge the baby up towards the surface where they come up at the same time.  The baby gasps, and Jensen looks at it proudly before pulling it into his arms.

Jared wishes he could share what he’s just seen with his colleagues.  Jensen is so much more sea mammal than he would have thought.  Watching him nudge the baby up to take his first breath of air is so like the actions of whales or dolphin and it was mind blowing.  Jared’s sure that what he just saw is miraculous.  It could make his whole career but he knows it’s a secret he has to keep to himself.  Still, it’s amazing and Jared’s jaw drops in response.

Jensen is making clicking noses at the baby and it looks directly at the merman.  Turning to Jared, Jensen shifts the little one so that Jared can see it.  He makes a weird vocalization that Jared can’t process before Jensen’s voice takes on something sounding vaguely like English.  “My son.”

“It’s a boy?”  Jared has no idea how Jensen knows.  There are only fishy parts and not little boy parts but who is he to say that Jensen doesn’t know his own species.

Nodding, Jensen looks proud.  He makes another noise Jared can’t understand that sounds vaguely like a name.

“Tobias?  His name is Tobias?”  Jared wades closer.  He wants to touch the baby for lots of reasons, some of them scientific but most of them emotional.

“Mmm hmm.  Toby.  My Toby.”  Jensen curls the baby to his chest, lifting him enough to see that the baby’s fin is dark blue, not green at all like Jensen’s tail or eyes.

“Toby.”  Jared considers the name before reaching out and wiping some afterbirth off the baby’s crown.  “Hi, Toby.”  He reaches towards the baby and is surprised when Jensen lets him take the little mer-baby into his own arms.  The baby is little but he looks more advanced than a newborn human.  He has better control of his limbs and is alert.  He’s staring at Jared with a face the size of a human newborn but features as intelligent as a one year old.  The baby coos and Jared’s heart melts.  Toby’s so cute and adorable; Jared is glad the rest of the human race can’t get their hands on him because he would be a spectacle.  Suddenly, the baby squirms and Jared loses his hold on him.  “Shit!”  Toby dives down to the bottom of the pool, this time coming up without Jensen’s help.  When he breaks the surface, he splashes loudly and tail wiggles his way back to Jensen.  “He’s ten minutes old and already a better swimmer than I am.”

Jensen smiles like that is a good thing and grabs onto Toby again.  The mer-baby makes new sounding chittering noises, higher pitched than Jared’s ever heard before, and nudges his head into Jensen’s chest.

By now, nothing surprises Jared anymore.  He almost expects it when Toby’s mouth latches onto Jensen’s nipple and starts suckling.

If Jared was at the rescue center, he’d be writing all of this down in a notebook.  He’d be keeping careful observation over how the newborn interacted with its parent, when it nursed and for how long.  He has to switch his clinical brain off for a moment to appreciate the serene nature of what he’s looking at.

Jensen looks tired but he also looks relieved.  His hold on Toby is nothing if not loving as he keeps a careful eye on his son, tickling his cheeks as he nurses determinedly.

Even though Jensen looks male and the idea is clearly unnatural for Jared, he has to admit that Jensen is a natural when it comes to taking care of Toby.  He has that type of instinct that runs deep in some creatures, some humans included.  He’s cooing to the mer-baby; every noise he makes sounds soothing and like something from an ocean sound relaxation CD Jared once had.

Toby yawns, pulls away from Jensen’s chest and looks directly at Jared.  His eyes are huge and just as blue as his tail.  He’s quite possibly the cutest thing Jared has ever seen come out of the water.  He makes a dolphin click and turns to suck nosily at Jensen’s chest again.

“He’s hungry.”  Jared says stupidly.  He’s still standing in the pool and doesn’t even want to think about what else he is standing in besides water but he can’t find the will power to get out.

“He did a lot of hard work to get here.”  Jensen runs a hand over the baby’s wet head, stroking the damp blond hair there.

Jared snorts.  He supposes Jensen’s right, he’s seen newborn whales and dolphins have a hard time struggling to survive after an exhausting birth but he thinks Jensen is the one who did most of the work.

Jared can admit it.  He’s mesmerized.  “That was amazing, Jensen.  _He_ ’samazing.  _You’re_ amazing.”

Jensen shrugs like he doesn’t deserve the accolades then blushes and looks at Jared from the corners of his eyes.  “Thank you.  Thank you for helping…I…I never did that before and I…”  He smiles shyly.  “Thanks.”

Jensen’s comments strike Jared as interesting.  He’s always taken for granted that creature just knew how to give birth but it makes sense that some things have to figure it out as they go along.  “You’re welcome.”  He watches Jensen and Toby and wonders what their life will be like in a day or two when he releases them.  Probably much better than life in the inflatable pool.  “Your mate’s going to be surprised when you come back with Toby.”

Jensen shakes his head.  “No mate.  Just me and Toby.  No…no community?”  Jensen gets out the last word on a question, like he’s not sure what term Jared will understand.  “No school of sea people.  They’re…gone.”

Feeling like an idiot for not asking about this before, Jared wants to put his foot in his mouth.

“It’s not bad.”  Jensen looks at Toby.  “I have Toby.  It’s okay.  We can find new sea people.”  He smiles at Jared wide enough to make the human believe that is entirely possible.

But all Jared can think is that he can’t.  He can’t find new sea people.

*************************

It’s after midnight, two days later, when Jared builds up the courage to risk bringing Jensen back to the beach where he found him.

He knows he is doing the right thing but it feels wrong.

A week ago, he didn’t know merpeople – sea people – existed.  Now he can’t shake the feeling that he is releasing the only one he will ever see.

He also knows, however, that Jensen is ready to go home.  He’s healed.  He cannot thrive on land and he has to go back to the ocean.  It hurts Jared so much to admit that because he is completely enamored with the merman and quickly feeling that way about Toby as well.

And because he loves them, he has to let them go.

It’s always his problem.

He knows it is actually a detrimental quality in terms of his career.

Jared is great at rehabilitating animals but they always sneak up into his heart and tear him apart when he lets them go.  Despite how much he wants to release them, despite how much he wants them back in the ocean he loves so much, they take a piece of Jared with them and that takes a while to heal.  He knows Jensen is going to take the biggest piece yet and he’s not sure his heart can come back from that and be the same again.

Still, he knows it is what has to happen and he’s willing to suffer so Jensen and Toby can have the life they are supposed to have.  They were never meant to be kept on land at the mercy of humans.

They are safer away from land people.

Jared has put his whole life on hold for a week and he needs to get back to it.  The fantasy has been nice but he’s reached the end and it is time to be a grown up and go back to the real world.

He’s trying not to cry as he gets ready to load Toby and Jensen into his car.  He’s never felt like he’s made such an impact on the world than he does now that he saved Jensen and no one will ever know about it.

It takes some figuring out but Jensen holds on tight to wiggly little Toby while Jared scoops them out of the pool and carries them through the back door towards the waiting car.

They don’t talk during the drive but Toby makes excited chirping noises, like he knows the ocean is getting closer.

Jared works fast once they park at the beach. He pulls Jensen into his arms again, this time feeling Toby snuggling in against his chest as well as Jensen’s.  He smiles up at Jared and he can see Toby’s blue eyes in the moonlight.  The baby is so happy; it takes away some of the pain Jared feels in letting them go.

He doesn’t need to walk too deeply into the water, stopping when the waves crash into his knees.  He puts Jensen into salt water for the first time in a week and the merman makes a happy twittering sound.

Jared, however, feels a tear fall down his cheek.  Jensen watches it fall with curiosity before reaching out and brushing over it with his thumb.  He sticks his thumb in his mouth and looks up at the human.  “You have the ocean in your eyes.”

Jared has to laugh at that.  “I won’t see you again, will I?”

Jensen thinks for a minute before looking up at Jared sadly.  “No.  I don’t think so.  I…”

“It’s okay.  You don’t have to explain.  You go.  Go live with Toby in the sea and have lots of adventures for me.”  Jared wipes away any further tears and forces a smile.  “I wish I could come.”

Jensen looks at Jared’s legs for a moment before Toby dives into the water and takes off.  He gets a panicked look on his face as he watches his son get further away.

“Go, Jensen.”  In truth, Jared wishes they could skip this part.  It’s the hard part.  The part that makes him want to grab Jensen and drag him back into the car.

“Thank you, Jah-red.”

Jared laughs again and thinks he’ll miss the exotic way his name sounds on Jensen’s tongue.  He smiles and coasts his hand though Jensen’s hair for the first and last time.  “Bye, Jensen.  You’ve been the best thing that ever happened in my world.”

Jensen gives him a curious look but he doesn’t say anything else before he dives under the waves and follows Toby.  He breaks the surface once and turns to look at Jared again but he’s far enough that he can’t see Jared crying again.  He lingers there, bobbing in the current as if he is waiting for something.

“Jared?”

Jared turns around to see Sally shining her flashlight in his face.  He nervously checks over his shoulder to where Jensen was staring at him but the merman is gone.

“Jared, are you okay?”  Sally shines her light on Jared’s chest.

Something reflects in Jared’s eyes and he looks down to find a shimmery scale stuck to his shirt.  It’s Jensen’s, obviously, but Sally doesn’t notice him shove it into his pocket.

“Jared?”

“Yeah, I’m…I’m fine.”  He wipes at his eyes with the back of his hands.

“Come out of the water Jared.  You know you shouldn’t be here.”  She watches Jared trudge out of the water until he gets close enough for her to realize he’s been crying.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I…I…”  Jared doesn’t finish the sentence because what would come out would sound crazy.

“Where is your ‘friend’?”  Tone softening, Sally gives Jared a sympathetic look.

“He, uh…he just left.”  Clearing his throat, Jared knows his request will come out awkwardly but he asks it anyway.  “If you see him…you’ll let me know right?”

“Jared, I don’t understand.”

“Just, if you see him…on the beach or see anything weird, you’ll let me know, right?”

Knowing when to leave well enough alone, Sally dumbly agreed.  “Yeah.  Sure.  But, Jared?  You need to be getting home.  Don’t make me drag you into the station, especially not after the night you seemed to have had.”

“Okay, yeah…”  He brushes past her and walks towards his car, hand thumbing the scale in his pocket.  It’s the only evidence he has of what is real, aside from pictures he’s buried so deep that no one will find them.  He turns around and the moonlight illuminates something jumping out of the water.  He thinks it’s Jensen but everyone else would think it’s a dolphin.

He hopes, for Jensen’s and Toby’s sake, people keep thinking that way.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it. I really had so much fun with this. It shocks me.  
> And yes, I do want to do a timestamp but I can't work on it for some time.
> 
> Also - I am dying for art inspired by this story. I see merman!Jensen (and Toby) so vividly in my head. I would even commission a piece of art. Does anyone have suggestions for who would be willing to try this. I know mpreg!merman!Jensen is probably a tough sell...but...a girl can dream.


End file.
